Cameron - Lust For Glory

So you find yourself in a quandary, not enough seats to get over that imaginary winning line, see Span for a perfect explanation of the vagaries of the British voting system, but you have your eyes fixed firmly on the prize, that carrot of power dangling outside of No.10 Downing Street, what to do?

Well you have three options, say sod it, we couldn't crack it and that's us done for until 2015. Say, no wait a minute, let's rally against convention, show what we've got to offer and form a minority Government, look at the big picture and say our vision is what is right for the country and go for it, or do you go against the majority of your party's wishes and try to broker a deal with a party you have very little in common with but whose coercion and agreement you could secure power?

A Conservative-Lib Dem alliance, in whatever form, without the inclusion of a debate and referendum on electoral reform will see the end of the Liberal Democrats. As my good wife put it, it will be the beginnings of the Lib-Lib Dems. A staggeringly high number of the great and the good, okay the not so horrible and the vaguely amiable, of the Conservatives are against it as well, and that's without even considering for a moment the feelings of the actual members and voters of these parties.

Let's not forget that Labour aren't finished either, true they lost a whole shed load of seats, but the 150 odd seats that were vacated has distorted the picture in a lot of cases. This was a muddled election from start to finish, nobody has come out of it looking good and us the poor electorate are left like the proverbial mushrooms.

From the moment the exit poll was released at 10pm on Thursday night it was clear that something was wrong, very wrong. Yes I predicted this result but that doesn't make it any better. The Conservatives failed to win enough seats, Labour lost too many seats, Liberal Democrats have enough members of Parliament to require a double decker bus, UKIP and BNP made little more than a ripple on the political pond at a point in their histories when they were expecting a tsunami and some of the people of Brighton allowed too much sea air to get into their heads.

Watching Michael Howard on BBC TV yesterday lunchtime I couldn't get over the fact that behind all the 'what is good for the country, this is the way responsible Government operates' bullshit was the feeling that even the Conservatives don't know what to do. Of course they have vision and of course, as I pointed out more than once, there is a convergence of policies, but not on the traditionally key issues of both parties: Europe, Defence, Education and Political Reform. This won't be a coalition this will be the equivalent of the playground bully kneeling on the back of the school softie so he can't scream 'This isn't right.' Why should the Lib Dems promise to keep quiet on the Queens Speech and the Budget, what do they get in return?

Of course if the Lib Dems do a deal with Labour there are just as many possible pitfalls but they will at least be starting from a position where they are both left of centre.

I've never known a post election result feeling to be so flat, except for those of us who have an interest in politics and the British Constitution (O Level Grade A Cambridge Board 1976 - thanks for asking). Yesterday those of us with an anoraks interest in the machinations of Government couldn't stop talking about it and checking on the BBC website every ten minutes for the latest news. David Cameron was trying to woo Nick Clegg like an evil uncle trying to entice the village virgin out of the corner of the dance hall with the promise of a cherry in her Babycham. Nick was being warned by his gang, who he couldn't hear, that Dave only wants one thing and will toss him aside when he's had his way, whilst Gordon, who had previously owned the halls sound system, was seen leaving the building by the side door with his box of records.

Looking on the message boards people just don't know how to react. There's almost a 'sod it' reaction, even my post thanking the Conservatives (Mal, Devon etc) for not expressing any form of triumphalism was misconstrued and not seeing for the irony it was meant to convey. And of course they couldn't say 'yah boo sucks' because for years the cry from the right, and even from David Cameron yesterday afternoon, was that 'Brown didn't have a mandate and wasn't the choice of the people' - well neither, under current rules, does David Cameron but that won't stop him. After all that carrot must look about ten foot tall at the moment.